Delphi 12 Athens
Delphi 12 Athens provides features from modernizing apps with an updated VCL to enabling amazing graphics with SKIA for FireMonkey. This version offers official Delphi support for iOS 17, Android 13, and macOS Ventura. It also supports Ubuntu 22 LTS, and Windows Server 2023. The lowest version of Android that will work with this version is 5.0.
Key Features
•Multiline String Literals for Delphi Source Code- We need to enclose multiline string literals in triple quotes. With this enhancement, we no longer need to concatenate a long string literal into a single line with a + sign. This allows easier embedding of SQL, HTML, JSON, and XML multi-line text within application source code.
•SKIA Support for UI Design in FireMonkey- Developers may generate responsive graphics across multiple platforms and improve the user experience of their applications by integrating Skia’s capabilities with FireMonkey. We get direct access to the Skia library using the Skia.pas unit.
•Split-screen app support- The ability to open apps side-by-side or one above the other in both iOS and Android. This was added for developing FireMonkey apps for mobile platforms that use only a portion of the available screen.
•Support for smart IDs in RAD Server- This helps to make customer’s hosted REST APIs more powerful and flexible. It provides data paging improvements and better session authentication.
•Weak type alias definition for NativeInt- This is done for enhanced Win32/Win64 compatibility, better support for NaN floating point number comparisons, and the disabling of floating-point exceptions on all platforms. In this version of Delphi, we can either use integer and Int64 or use NativeInt instead of integer and Int64.
SKIA-based controls and features:
•TSkAnimatedImage control for FireMonkey with support for Telegram Sticker, Animated GIF, and Animated WebP formats.
•Other UI controls based on Skia include TSkLabel, TSkPaintBox, TSkAnimatedPaintBox, and TSkSvg control.
•FMX.Skia.GlobalUseSkia setting enables app rendering using Skia.
•FMX.Skia.GlobalUseVulkan setting allows the use of the Vulkan driver in Skia which helps in developing applications that are portable to multiple platforms.
•Effects and filters can use Skia Shading Language (SKSL).
•Supports native printer for Windows and printing as PDF on all platforms.
Other Enhancements:
•FireMonkey TEdit now supports undo functionality, using the recently added TUndoManager.
•WebBrowser component for Windows, with support for both IE ActiveX and the new Microsoft WebView 2 control (Chromium-based Edge).
•The FireDAC Query by Example (QBE) component makes data filtering easier, provides a JSON data mapping wizard to generate classes matching JSON data structure, allows mapping of data to objects like XML, and streaming out to new files.
•Support for Linux client-side applications using the FMX Linux library.
•Added custom title bars and the TitleBarPanel component.
Delphi 12.1 Athens
Delphi 12.1 Athens primarily focuses on improving the quality of the new features in Delphi 12, adding further enhancements and addressing customer-reported bugs.
Key Features
•Split Editor Views- It supports the opening of several split editors in different views, thus allowing us to edit the same file in multiple locations. This is useful in case we need to edit the same file next to itself, keeping the design and code view on one screen.
•Database and FireDAC- Adds official support for Firebird version 5, PostgreSQL version 16 and SavePoint/RestorePoint support for a cloned TFDMemTable.
•Enhancement in Delphi Code Insight implementation- This is based on the Language Server Protocol architecture. In this release, the Code completion feature has been improved. When the auto-invoke function is enabled, code completion is automatically generated if we input any code. To avoid adding the currently selected completion, we can press any key other than tab and enter.
Other Enhancements:
•TNumberBox control is enhanced with better support for negative values and scientific notation. Support has been added in nbmFloat mode for exponents, such as ‘-1.3e4’.
•For REST Debugger tool, a new option has been added to copy values from the data grid preview.
•TXMLDocument component support for MSXML on Windows. Native OmniXML library and native ADOM library on other platforms.
•Support has been added for Android API level 34. With the adoption of newer Android platform tools, the process of deploying apps to Android devices has been improved.